Fallout Novio Magus
by m.Agrippa
Summary: Three wastelanders get caught up in events that will probably decided the future of post-war Nijmegen. Follow them as they make their decisions.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors note:** _This is probably my first story in years. Started writing it just so I could get back into it. English is not my mother tongue. Any feedback is more then welcome. _

**Jasper**  
**  
**After putting on his gasmask he checked his gear one last time. Flashlight, check. spare ammo, check. Gasmask filter, check. Combat knife, check. The rest of his gear was in his backpack which he would leave behind with the rest of the crew for now. He didn't need it for the scavenge hunt, it would only be in his way.  
"Ready to go?" He asked Dmitri.  
"Aye, I am ready to head out. Yourself?"  
Jasper nodded confirming. They closed the door to the hallway behind them and opened the front door. They were greeted by the barren wasteland. It was covered, as always, in a thick layer of snow and radioactive fallout. The sky was grey, as it always was, impossible to tell day from night. He stepped out on the balcony after Dmitri and closed the door behind them. They walked to the end of the balcony, towards the door to the staircase. They were greeted there by Daniel. Daniel had joined the 10, which no longer consisted of just 10 members but had grown to the biggest group in Nijmegen numbering 133 heads and growing, early on. He was part of one of the first two groups that joined the 10.  
"All set to go?" Daniel Inquired.  
"You bet your ass we are" Dmitri replied.  
Jasper shrugged.  
"It's just another scavenge, nothing out of the ordinary."  
Daniel and Dmitri smiled and laughed through their gasmasks.  
"All right then ladies, let's get going, we don't have all day." Dmitri concluded as he walked towards the stairs, followed by Jasper and Daniel.

They had to descend three stairways. When they arrived on the ground floor Dmitri made one last equipment check.  
"Never can't be too sure" He said with a slight tone of amusement in his voice.  
Jasper had known Dmitri for almost a year now. Dmitri always tried to look tough but behind that mask he was a cautious man. Jasper looked on as Dmitri checked his equipment. Dmitri was wearing faded camouflage trousers over his worn army boots. All pre-war equipment. Dmitri was in his early 30's and was starting to grow a belly. His green army jacket, which was in quite good condition compared to most gear out there, was visibly a couple of sizes too small. Dmitri was wearing an improvised gasmask, made out of an old worn one. The rubber of the original mask had decayed, but the metal parts were still intact when Dmitri had found them. Jasper had helped Dmitri to fabricate a new one out of the metal parts.  
"All right, I am all set to go. Let's do this!" Dmitri said.  
Daniel had his worn 12 gauge army shotgun at the ready while Jasper and Dmitri had their 10mm pistols out. Dmitri reached out and opened the door with his right hand, holding his pistol in his left. He stepped outside, holding the door ajar for Jasper and Daniel. As soon as they were outside, he closed the door.

Dmitri was leading the way. They were doing short sprints from building to building, trying to stay as much in cover as possible. There were bad folk out here. And not just bad folk, but also mutants and creatures alike. Daniel was in the middle with his shotgun while Jasper was tasked with covering their backs and making sure they weren't followed. They were heading east. The buildings they were now passing by just now were already searched and looted by their crew months ago. The blocks to the north-east, however, were not. And that was exactly where they were heading.  
"Daniel, come here and check that building for me please." Dmitri asked.  
They were hiding behind an apartment building with their backs against the wall, Dmitri had just checked around the corner.  
"Over there by that house, the faint light through the boarded up windows." Dmitri said as he pointed out the general direction. Where Jasper was in need of optics, this was certainly not true for Dmitri. Dmitri had real hawk eyes.  
Daniel checked around the corner with his binoculars, the only set they had in their group of 133. Those things were rare these days.  
"I see the house alright. Hard to tell how many there are though, if any at all. It's just the light peeking out through the boarded windows. They might have sentries up, I can't tell."  
Daniel turned to Dmitri.  
"What do we do now?  
Dmitri took a deep breath.  
"Best we go around them if we are going to complete this scavenge. We don't know how strong they are. On the other hand, they are way too close to our current base to my liking. What say you Jasper? Shall we check it out or ignore them?"  
Dmitri always did this. Formally Dmitri was team leader, but he would ask Jasper for advice all the time. And not just advice. It wasn't unusual for him to let Jasper make decisions for him, quite like what he was doing right now.  
"Best we check them out. But we must try to remain unseen. We don't want to get stuck in a pointless fight that we might not even be able to win".  
Daniel nodded approvingly.  
"Alright then boys. Get ready and follow my lead." Dmitri said.

**  
Roos**

Roos was a pretty girl, or at least that was what she got told a lot. She was a blonde, 19 years of age. She was sitting on her mattress, brushing her hair. She rarely got around to doing this, their group simply moved around too much. Now it was different though. Their group had swelled to such numbers that it was almost impossible to pack up and move every day.  
She stopped brushing.  
They had decided to move into this apartment 2 days ago. When they arrived it was already late and they decided to rest with sentries guarding the apartment for the night. They had two pair of guards out on the roof and three guards patrolling around the building. Roos was assigned to be one of the roof guards since she was one of the only two people to have a bolt action rifle. The other rifle owner was Jack, a middle aged balding guy she had only met 4 weeks ago. He and she guarded the left part of the roof while Daniel and a boy she didn't know guarded the right. Daniel had no long distance weapons, but he was the only one with a binocular. Daniel was a good friend of her father.

The boy who was with him possessed the only sniper rifle she had ever seen in her life. Even though she was up on the roof all night, she didn't get a chance to talk to him. After all, they had guard duty and were sitting quite far apart from each other. She estimated that he was probably late teens or early twenties, but it was hard to tell from such a distance. And besides that, they both wore gasmasks of course.

"Are you alright Roos?" Michelle asked.

Roos had been staring. Michelle was a small girl with long, curly dark blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Her young cheeks and nose were covered in really light freckles. Michelle was 18, only a month or 3 younger than Roos.  
"I am fine I guess. My mind was just wandering off."  
Michelle sat down next to her.  
"Try not the get lost in those thoughts too much hun. We need people to stay alert."  
Michelle always was one of those responsible girls. Never taking a risk, always playing by the rules. Roos hated that, but in the end that kind of attitude would keep you alive in the wasteland. Roos was far more daring, always taking risks and always going in first. Her father would give her hell for that attitude quite often. Her father was quite a cautious man.  
Roos sighed.  
"I know Michelle. It's just.. We have been moving around practically all my life, never staying somewhere longer than a day, maybe two. It's hard for me to imagine we are stuck here for god knows how long."  
Michelle smiled and gave Roos a hug.  
"It'll be alright. We are not stuck here. Look at it this way. We finally have the numbers to build something secure, something that lasts! We could actually have a future now!" Michelle said.  
Roos shrugged.  
"I don't know. I grew up traveling; it's how I kept safe. I always sought out the dangers, confronting them face to face, so I knew what I was up to. Sitting around and doing nothing feels like inviting trouble in. I don't know what is threatening me or when. It's gonna take a while before I get used to this kind of life."  
Michelle hugged her again, this time a bit tighter.  
"You'll get used to it!" She said cheerfully. Michelle got up and walked out the door, leaving Roos alone, sitting on her mattress.  
Roos checked her watch. 9:13 in the morning. Her dad was out on a scavenger hunt right now.

**Mark  
**  
Mark was polishing his boots. They had arrived in the apartment 2 days ago. Yesterday the group had gotten up early to fortify the building. But not Mark. He had finished his guard duty when the others got up. He had gone to bed that morning and slept well past noon. When he got up most of the fortifications were done. They had boarded up all the windows and some doors, blocked all the entrances safe for two, and they had put barricades up on the roof that would serve as cover. Some part of the balconies also got fortified with plywood and sheet metal so that one could take cover if shit were to hit the fan. After that they started with cleaning out some of the apartments, a process that is going to take at least a couple of more days.  
Today, however, he had no duties. The group had grown rapidly and lacked any form of order or structure, safe from the leading 10. They were referred to as simply "the 10". They were the group that started it all. They arranged for the first three groups to meet up and they had consolidated an alliance. This gave them a numerical advantage with only 3 or 4 groups in the city that could rival their numbers. They started to ambush other groups, killing about 10 to 20 percent of them, and giving the others a chance to surrender and join them, something they usually did. One does not easily say no with a gun to his head.

Mark had joined the group about a month ago. He was a lone wolf most of his life. Just him, his sniper rifle, which he had nicknamed Betty, and the wasteland. He, however, decided that this group was worth a shot. He joined them voluntarily, like most of the people who joined the group in the weeks after him. This was the first time a group in the city had grown so big. It had happened more often that the smaller groups teamed up, but rarely did that last long nor did their ranks grow as big as this one had. He was already starting to have second thoughts though. The group was poorly organized, had crappy supplies for such a large group and Mark felt that most of the group was being carried on the backs of maybe 20 hard workers. This couldn't go on, things had to change. If they didn't he'd probably part with them as easy as he had gotten in. He would just sneak out while he was on guard duty. If the other guy protested he'd just get him killed. He was, however, hoping for some company. Maybe he could talk him or her into leaving as well? He was 23 now and felt like it was time to become part of a group and maybe even find a pretty girl to date with. Being a lone wolf was safe, but lonely. And deep inside Mark didn't like to be alone. Maybe he could convince the productive elements to start a group of their own and ditch the dead weight. He played with the thought for a while.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Mark said.

The door slowly opened and Bert stood at the door opening. Bert was tall and bald, and had deep, ugly scars running all over his face and head. Bert was part of one of the three founding groups, making him quite important. His presence probably indicated that he wanted something from Mark.  
"I was wondering if you had a minute to spare. May I sit?" He gestured towards a rusty metal garden chair.  
"Sure, go ahead, sit down." Mark replied.  
Bert sat down with his elbows on his knees and his hands folded, resting his chin on them. The chair was quite small and Bert looked a bit goofy sitting on it.

"We are considering a couple of reforms in the group. We have grown quite big the past few weeks, as you might have noticed. I know you are still quite new to the bunch, but I feel like I can trust you." Bert said while looking at Mark, clearly trying to read his expression.

Bert had taken Mark in and had given him most of his assignments since then.

Mark nodded approvingly.

Bert rubbed his big hands in his long face.

"I know you aren't used to being part of a group, but I feel like you really want to give us a fair chance. It seems to me that it is only fair if we return that favor. If we are to reorganize the group, would you be interested in getting a leading role?" Bert asked, staring at Mark intently now.

Mark frowned.

"Sure! Sounds great! I didn't see that one coming actually. I was just thinking about this exact subject. We really need reforms."

Bert stood up.

"I know we do. It's just quite hard to convince the others. I know all I need to know and I want to thank you for your time." Bert said as he turned around and slowly walked towards the door.

Mark had wanted to elaborate a bit more on the subject actually. Bring up some of his ideas to Bert. But he'll let it rest for now.

"No problem Bert. Feel free to pop in and drink a beer with me sometime soon!" Mark said loudly while Bert was leaving.

"I will!" Bert shouted back through the hallway as he closed the door behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Jasper**

They were now covering behind a wrecked car. The house was right in front of them, just a couple more meters. Daniel tried if he could see more from here with his binoculars. Nothing.  
"I'll move in first, you two wait for my signal" Dmitri ordered as he slowly walked towards the building in a squatted position. He was holding his pistol with both hands now at face height.

The building was a simple 2 story row house with an attic. The attic however, had not survived the war, the roof had collapsed upon it fully, turning the top of the building into one big ruble pile. The windows on the second floor had been boarded up tightly from the outside, it would be hard to peek outside trough them. The boarded up window on the ground floor was, compared to the boards on the second floor, really sloppy, with some planks having almost a 10 centimeter gap in between them. The light was shining out from the ground floor window. Now that they were closer they could tell it was probably a fire or a candle since the light flickered quite a bit.

Dmitri was now only 5 meters away from the building. He dropped to his belly and crouched forward until was now right under the window. He gestured us to come over.  
"Ladies first" Jasper said to Daniel.  
Daniel pushed his shoulder teasingly and moved out of cover towards the building, crossing the street.  
He was almost halfway when they heard a shot being fired. BLAM!  
Daniel fell down backwards in the snow.  
Jasper gasped as he brought his hands to his head.  
"Shit, shit shit!" Dmitri cursed as he got into a squatting position once more. He held his hand up, gesturing Jasper to wait. Just as he tried to look through the boarded window, Jasper was crossing the street.  
Daniel was panting heavily while he was letting out soft moans. Jasper sat down beside him.  
"Don't worry; I'll get you out of here." Jasper said as he grabbed Daniel under his armpits and started dragging him. Daniel, being shot in the shoulder, was now shouting in agony because of the pressure on the wound.  
Dmitri turned to face the street.  
"Jasper, what the _hell_ do you think you are doing?!" He yelled angrily.  
He got up and ran in their direction.  
Another shot was heard. BLAM!  
Dmitri fell face forward into the snow and with such speed that he slid forward until his head touched Daniels boot. He was moaning softly. Daniel at this point had passed out because of the pain.  
"Run, Jasper, get out of here" Dmitri said in agony.  
Adrenaline kicked in. Jasper was in panic. He got up and ran away. Two more shots were heard, but they had both missed him. Barely.

**Roos**

Roos was cleaning her rifle. She had taken some parts out and had them down on the table. She checked her watch again, 11.43. The morning was almost over. The scavengers would, if they didn't find anything exceptional, be back around 1 in the afternoon. Roos sighed. She hated it when her dad was out there without her. Even though her dad was cautious, he did always go in first taking the greatest risk. She felt she should at least be with him to cover him. On the other hand, he was with Jasper and Daniel, two good and strong guys. Well, Daniel at least. Jasper never struck her as a real macho but more like a nice and smart guy.

She heard a door slamming on the groundfloor. She looked up from her gun. Someone was running up the stairs really fast. She had the first apartment next to the staircase which she shared with her dad. Michelle had also stayed for the night but she had left her already.  
She could hear someone running out on the balcony. She walked towards the hallway and put on her gasmask. When she opened the front door and looked to her left, she saw Jasper running towards one of the other doors and knocking on it like a madman. She quickly stepped outside, not bothering to close the door behind her and ran towards him.  
"Jasper! What is wrong? Where are the others?" She asked worried.  
"They got them! Damn it, they got them!" Jasper said, still panicking and panting heavily, trying to catch his breath again.  
"Who got them? How? What happened, Jasper?" Roos asked, now slightly in panic.  
The door opened up and Bert stood in the opening with his gasmask on. When he saw Jasper, he quickly pulled him inside.  
"Go home Roos. You will hear when it's all over." He said surly as he quickly closed the door.  
Roos stared at the shut door. The windows on the door were boarded up. So was the kitchen window next to it. She tried to peek through them, but couldn't see anything. She slowly walked back to her apartment.  
She was surprised to find the door open. Apparently she had forgotten to close it. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her. She took off her mask and put it on the shelf next to the door. As she walked into the kitchen she noticed her rifle on the table, still in pieces. She started to put it back together again. 

**Mark**

A loud knock on his front door alerted him. After he had put on his gasmask he opened up. Nathan stood in front of him. Nathan was a redhead, and quite a chubby one too.  
"Bert asked me to get you. You are Mark right?"  
Mark nodded and said "yeah, that's me."  
"We've got no time to waste. Get your sniper rifle, we have a problem." Nathan said panting. The fatty apparently came here running. Mark, keeping his sniper rifle right next to the door, grabbed it and stepped outside.

They walked to the command apartment, the apartment where the 10 stayed at, and Nathan opened the door. When Mark closed the door behind them they took off their gasmasks. Nathan opened the door and walked into the living room, followed by Mark.  
Bert was sitting on a couch with Jasper next to him. The other two couches were filled with the rest of the 10. Mark didn't know them all by name yet. There was Nadine sitting on the couch with Bert and Jasper. She had her arm around Jaspers shoulder. Jasper was resting his elbows on his knees and he was holding his hair, looking at the floor. He was shaking.  
On the other Couch was Kevin and, who he assumed, was Mike. He didn't know anybody from the third couch. There was a man and a woman. The man had long black wavy hair and light blue eyes. He was probably around his 30's. The woman wasn't that pretty and was middle aged. She had brown hair and green eyes which made her faded yellow jacket look even more awful and out of place. The guy with the long black hair rose from the couch.  
"Good that you were able to come Mark. Bert told us all about you. Your reputation precedes you. My name is Frank, but there is no time for formalities. Let's get down to business." Frank said.  
Frank turned to face Jasper. "As you can see, Jasper is quite shaken here. That is because he just witnessed Dmitri and Daniel get shot. Most probably by a sniper."  
He now faced Mark again.  
"We need your help fixing this, we don't know if our guys are still out there on the street, but if they are, the sniper probably is as well. We have assembled a team of 5 to assists you in this. However, we think it is better that you take the lead and go in first. Spot the sniper and take him out. Would you be willing to do this?" Frank asked and he tilted his head slightly while looking at Mark.  
"Of course I will, whatever it takes!" Mark said without a moment of hesitation.  
Frank sighed in relieve.  
"Good, the team is waiting for you downstairs in the hall. Get geared up and leave as soon as you can. Our boys are bleeding out there and every second counts." Frank replied.  
Mark nodded and ran towards the hallway.  
"Thanks!" Frank shouted towards him, but Mark was already outside with his gasmask on.

He sprinted to his apartment. He opened the door, grabbed an extra magazine and a box of rounds, and slammed the door shut again. He sprinted towards the staircase and descended. When he got down the team was already prepared to leave.  
"Ready when you are sir!" one of them said. They were all wearing their gasmasks. Only two of them had pistols, the others were armed with close combat weapons. One had a baseball bat, the other a kitchen knife and third one was armed with a cleaver. Fighting snipers with bats, knives and cleavers, what has this world come to? He asked himself. At least one of them had an actual combat helmet. As they were about to leave mark held up his hand. "Wait" He said.  
They heard someone running down the stairs.  
It was Jasper. "Someone needs to guide you in the right direction, right? You almost left without knowing the location!" he panted, through his gasmask, muffling his voice.


End file.
